In producing cigars, an outer wrapper cut from a natural tobacco leaf is often spirally wound about the cigar to produce the appearance familiar to the buying public. For many years the wrapper was cut and spirally wrapped around a cigar in a single manually operated machine which cut the wrapper and performed the wrapping operation. This type of machine was relatively slow and had a high labor input in that an operator had to position the wrapper preparatory to cutting and then had to wait for completion of the cutting and wrapping operation. In recent years there has been a tremendous effort devoted to mechanizing the production of cigars. All phases of cigar manufacturing are now the subject of development work directed toward increased mechanization. Only in this manner can a cigar be produced at a cost commensurate with the general market conditions. In this continuing effort to mechanize cigar manufacturing, it has become quite popular to cut the wrapper at a remote position and store a large number of cut wrappers in a manner which will allow mechanized feeding of the wrapper into a wrapping position. One of the more common storage systems involves the use of a fabric web coiled into a cylinderical bobbin. Wrappers are cut and deposited onto the web which is then wrapped to capture the cut wrapper between convolutions of the bobbin. A bobbin filled with wrappers equally spaced throughout the convolutions is then used in an automatic feeding mechanism that reverses the loading action of the bobbin. The web is unwound to expose a series of oriented, spaced wrappers that are transferred, in succession, to the wrapping machine.
The use of a coiled web in the form of a bobbin to capture and store wrappers has introduced a further problem of mechanization. At this time, the bobbin is loaded with cut wrappers by various systems. One of the systems involves the use of an operator positioned before a cutting die having a cutting blade shaped into the desired profile of the wrapper. A natural tobacco leaf is laid over the cutting die in a manner avoiding defects and vacuum is applied to the cutting die. This holds the leaf in place so that a cutting roller can roll over the die and cut the wrapper from the leaf. Thereafter, the roll returns to the rest position, a transfer arm lifts the cut wrapper and the wrapper is moved to a web of a bobbin. After these functions have been performed, the operator repositions the leaf to provide a second wrapper, if possible, and the procedure is repeated. In this manner, a succession of wrappers are deposited onto the web which is intermittently indexed to capture the wrappers between the convolutions of the bobbin which is being wound. After a bobbin has been filled, it is transferred to a storage area to be used in various types of wrapping machines. As can be seen, this somewhat standard procedure is highly labor intensive. The operator must wait for the cutting rolls to roll over the die and return for the wrapper transfer to be made before the die is then again ready for cutting another wrapper. This is the background of the tobacco art to which the present invention is directed.